When I tasted the above, I was not well informed about puerh, so I will qualify slightly. I did follow the brewing instructions from the respective vendors and got something completely undrinkable every time. Adagio's puerh is currently sold out, so it is obvious that someone out there likes this stuff.

In my opinion, Rishi is the only domestic puerh vendor who's teas are clean enough to hold up to Western brewing (as suggested in the packaging). The others maintain a serious fishy/pond taste that is indicative of recent fermentation. This is found in most new shu products, and improves over time. New premium products are likely to be pressed this year from leaves that were fermented 1-2 years ago. This lets the factory sell ready to drink tea.

Red Blossom Nannuo Shan Shou Pu-erh, 1997

Again, I would like to try this again now that I am well versed in cooked puerh and gong fu brewing. The leaves and fermentation both look pretty low grade, though.

2006 TongQing Hao Pu-erh Tea Brick

There is no excuse at all for this tea. It went immediately to the trash. The vendors above do not specialize in puerh, and their products are high quality overall. This tea, on the other hand, was included in a sampler of 5 of the vendors cooked teas, and was meant to showcase the store. Unfortunately, 2 out of the 5 samples were undrinkable. The other three were quality cooked teas, and I am glad to have tried them.

brandon wrote: Adagio's puerh is currently sold out, so it is obvious that someone out there likes this stuff.

I was lucky enough to get some before it "went missing" on the webpage. My tin had at least 3 bugs in it that I found. Probably more that I didn't find. They looked like flying ants and were dead, floating at the top of the tea pot after infusion. I always wondered if that was a reason it became "sold out" a short time later...

brandon wrote:In my opinion, Rishi is the only domestic puerh vendor who's teas are clean enough to hold up to Western brewing (as suggested in the packaging).

...maintain a serious fishy/pond taste that is indicative of recent fermentation.

Funny to see Rishi mentioned. I was in Wegmans today looking through all the teas they have and they had Rishi puerh toucha! I was utterly amazed to see puerh in a grocery store around here. I shook the can and I could hear the little touchas banging around. I've never had any Rishi products so I was skeptical to say the least. I have recently upgraded (hopefully) to Puerh Shop for some pu. My experience with mini touchas isn't something I want to repeat. Talk about fishy/ pond taste! I tried to make smoked salmon tea using that lousy pu and some lapsang souchong but it didn't work out to hot.

brandon wrote:In my opinion, Rishi is the only domestic puerh vendor who's teas are clean enough to hold up to Western brewing (as suggested in the packaging).

...maintain a serious fishy/pond taste that is indicative of recent fermentation.

Funny to see Rishi mentioned. I was in Wegmans today looking through all the teas they have and they had Rishi puerh toucha! I was utterly amazed to see puerh in a grocery store around here. I shook the can and I could hear the little touchas banging around. I've never had any Rishi products so I was skeptical to say the least. I have recently upgraded (hopefully) to Puerh Shop for some pu. My experience with mini touchas isn't something I want to repeat. Talk about fishy/ pond taste! I tried to make smoked salmon tea using that lousy pu and some lapsang souchong but it didn't work out to hot.

I come to the defense of the Rishi one. Its a lot better than many, or maybe most of the commonly available ones. Its beats adagio pu-erh, ten tea loose shu, the ubiquitous ancient maiden and many others. That said, I would not drink it unless I ran out of real shu.